The Gate
by SuperHeroInTraining
Summary: My interpretation of the possible Hell-arc...Which I really want. Prolouge starts at the winter war,as of now I'm planning to set everything five years in the future. If there is a paring it'll be IchiRuki and maybe others.The formatting is acting up...


**Disclaimer: **Newsflash! If I owned Bleach I wouldn't be writing FFs for it... xP

**AN: **Ummm... Enjoy, reveiws are always wonderful, and I apologize in advance for everything. If this gets popular I might even get a beta for it?!?! I really don't know why I'm so excited, but I am. Wouldn't want my grammar to fail infront of the masses now would I? Oh, this was spawned by my love for Ichigo, Hichigo, the possibility of a Hell-arc, and my love of torture scences. More to come soonish.. maybe.

Oh! and I know the second thing has been used half a gillion times and better than I did, but I hope i did it justice.

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_**Five Years Ago:**_

_Winter War, Kakura Town_

_The Winter War at Kakura town ended with the opening of The Gate._

_The doorway was regurgitated from the ground, quickly and unceremoniously. It seemed as though the earth couldn't wait to rid itself of it. _

_Which was only understandable, what in the universe, living or dead, human, beast or thing would want hell living inside it? _

_Looming high above Kakura, it leered down at the tangle of loser and victor, blotting out the sun. __If anything, Kakura was now a setting more befitting to the Winter War, the sun no longer shone mockingly on the carnage down below. _

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The Gate was the last thing Kurosaki Ichigo saw before he lost his fight against unconsciousness._

_Around him, soul reaper and vizard began lifting their nakama off the war-torn streets and honoring the dead, wading through the blood that had pooled around them. _

_Divisions regrouped and those who could helped the medics. _

_Captains Kenpachi, Kuchiki and Mayuri arrived a few hours after the close of the war. __Kenpachi cursed profusely and loudly complained about how he missed the fighting. __He was silenced by a sharp look from Unohana and a smack on the head, courtesy of Yachiru. _

_General Yamato later called a council with his remaining Captains to discuss The Gate, but no conclusions were reached, and The Gate continued to stand above Kakura for twenty-four hours._

_Oddly, its disappearance coincided with a certain Substitute Shinigami's first awakening._

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_The first images his brain comprehended were hazy and disjointed. He failed to feel anything. _

_As his vision returned, he craned his neck and saw the grubby tile floor he was laying on. __His brain associated it with discomfort but none came. __It was... Disorienting at first, and then disorientation gave way to panic…_

_**Something was wrong.** _

_Looking down, he could see wounds, gaping and angry red. __Stark white bandages covered what he assumed to be the more serious abrasions, yet he could feel nothing. _

_For a fleeting moment he wondered if he was dead. _

_He knew plenty about human deaths, but what he knew about death for the dead was exceedingly small._

_He wished for pain. _

_Conformation that he was alive- or as close to alive as he could get in his spirit form._

_He would regret thinking that. _

_It would happen in about** twenty** seconds._

_He saw something move out the corner of his eye._

_He saw his muscles tense, and again felt nothing, though he wished he had._

_**Fifteen** seconds until he would regret wishing __that._

_He heard steps, and assumed-and hoped that it was a friend. _

_He remembered dealing the final blow to Aizen, but couldn't be sure. The details were still a little hazy._

_He wondered about his nakama. _

_Were they safe? _

_Were they even alive? _

_For the second time, panic began to claw at his chest, spawning one of his infamous and completely stupid decisions. __If he couldn't feel pain, why not make the most of it? __There was nothing stopping him from getting up. __It took him about ten seconds to rise off the ground.__It was kind of like when his foot fell asleep and he couldn't properly feel it to walk. _

_**Five seconds** before he would wish he had stayed put. _

_He hit the ground with a loud thud. __Something had pushed him down. _

_What? _

_Desperately he hoped to see Unohana-san's face, reprimanding him in her stern but gentle way, or Rukia's even, calling him an idiot for trying to get up with his wounds._

_The thing he saw didn't even have a face. _

_Fear, primal and dominating overtook him. __Somewhere, buried in his DNA, instinct was telling him to get away from this __thing._

_**He couldn't.** _

_He wasn't sure if fear, or the faceless creature had bound him, but he couldn't move._

_His regret was upon him. _

_**Zero Seconds.** _

_It reached out an obsidian-black hand. _

_At first the hand had looked insubstantial to him, harmless, as if made of smoke, until he saw. _

_Saw that its rank fingernails tapered to a treacherous point, and were stained with different shades of red. _

_Red that was undeniably blood, some old and some fresh. _

_**Dried and Dripping.** _

_Panic gripped him again, as the red nails descended on his exposed arm, and began to carve his flesh. _

_Pain, more acute and intense than any he had the misfortune of ever knowing coursed through him. __For a few unbearable seconds-no **hours**- he endured._

_Every cell screamed. He was being ripped apart slowly. _

_Most in pain have death to look forward to. _

_A ceasing in existence is a ceasing in pain._

_In his shinigami form, he could die and it would be **final.** _

_Kurosaki Ichigo knew though, he would not be allowed that luxury._

_He wouldn't allow himself to have it. _

_In the throes of pain faces swam across his vision; his family and his friends. He couldn't leave them, not like this. It was an unconscious decision, made by the small fraction of his thought that hadn't been devoured by agony. It was his nature speaking. And so, the Protector protected his loved ones from his own death, holding on to sanity for as long as he could._

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_Done, It lifted its hand and faded. _

_He didn't even comprehend it, hanging somewhere between delirium and sane thought. _

_The pain that had kept him semi-consciousness, every nerve on fire, lessened slightly, and his body shut down, in too much shock to preform its duties with him awake. _

_Unconsciousness enveloped him. _


End file.
